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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Honolulu, Hawaii -- 23 May 2012 -- The Association for Preservation Technology International, a cross-disciplinary, membership organization dedicated to promoting the best technology for conserving historic structures and their settings, announces the formation of the Hawaii/Pacific Islands chapter. This chapter is open to APT members in the Hawaiian Islands and US Territories in the Pacific.

The Hawaii/Pacific Islands chapter held their inaugural event at the recently restored World War II-era Ford Island Control Tower at Pearl Harbor on April 7, 2012. The event was hosted by the Pacific Aviation Museum who oversaw the $7.5 million stabilization project.

The Hawaii/Pacific Islands chapter plans to meet quarterly for brown bag/workshops on various aspects of materials science, behind-the-scene site visits, and outreach across disciplines. A tour of Bello’s Millwork shop in Wahiawa, Hawaii is scheduled for Wednesday, June 13 at 1:30 pm. Please visit their website for more information: http://www.apti.org/ .

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The National Trust for Historic Preservation Diversity Scholarship Program is now accepting applications for the 2012 National Preservation Conference, to be held in Spokane, Washington, October 30-November 3, 2012.We seek culturally diverse applicants whose attendance at the conference will benefit their communities and whose commitment to historic preservation will be reinforced by their participation. Through interactive sessions, presentations, informal gatherings, and tours of the host city and surrounding areas, participants will learn the necessary tools to strengthen their commitment and effectiveness in preserving historic places and revitalizing communities. Diversity Scholars will also have the opportunity to present their preservation projects to the broader conference audience.The Diversity Scholarship Award covers basic conference registration and single guest accommodations for 4 nights at a hotel selected by the National Trust. Apply today and continue to spread the word about the great work of the National Trust and the Diversity Scholarship Program!Click here for program and application information or contact scholarship@nthp.org.

APPLICATIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY BY FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 2012.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Hawaii's
historic preservation agency was given more than $600,000 by the Legislature in
the past year to beef up staff in order to avoid losing its federal
certification.

But
the State Historic Preservation Division didn't spend any of that money on new
hires. Instead it bought iPads and new cars and extended the contract of a
private company.

SHPD's
director said she thought that a couple of staff had been hired this year — the
department's total budget is about $2 million — but this is far short of the number
of positions that the National Park Service says need to be filled in just the
next few months in order to prevent federal action.

The
agency is in charge of protecting Hawaii's historic and archeological
treasures. But the National Park Service has warned it will strip SHPD of its
federal certification if it doesn’t hire vital staff by the end of September,
potentially delaying billions of dollars in projects.

Worse,
top state officials overseeing SHPD are confused about how many staff positions
— or which ones — needed to be filled.

State
officials said that the Park Service hadn't been clear about the staffing
requirements. And they defended the fund reallocations saying that they were
unable to attract staff during the past year and needed to use the money by the
end of June or it would be lost.

“I
think I’ve been working on hiring,” said Pua Aiu, director of SHPD. “If I can’t
use the money to hire the openings, which would certainly be preferable, then I
think the best thing to do is get equipment for staff to do their job. And
that’s what I did.”

The
implications for the state if SHPD loses its certification are vast, according
to Kiersten Faulkner, executive director of theHistoric Hawaii Foundation, a nonprofit that
advocates for the preservation of Hawaii’s historic resources.

Any
state project that involves federal funding, permitting or licensing could be
impacted. Faulkner noted that this includes transportation projects, including
highways, airports, bridges and even the $5.2 billionHonolulu rail project, as well as Department of
Defense and military projects and Department of Agriculture rural development
projects.

“If
there is no one to say whether they are complying with federal law, they can’t
proceed. And this can put a cloud over hundreds of millions of dollars of
federal funding,” said Faulkner.

SHPD
has known that it needs to hire staff for a year and a half. In 2010, the Park
Service slapped the department with a "corrective action plan." This
means that SHPD is at high-risk of losing certification and half of its budget
— about $500,000 of federal funds, and an equal amount of matching state funds
— if it doesn't make a series of operational improvements, according to
federal documents.

Staffing
is just one of the areas that must be fixed in order to comply with the
corrective action plan. Last month, the federal agency sent a letter to state
officials saying that staffing and retention of employees remain a major
problem and that the department was at risk of failing to meet the corrective
action plan.

Confusion Over Staff Positions

Seven
of the department’s 20 positions remain vacant, according to theHawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources,
which oversees SHPD. But with less than five months left to meet the deadline
of the corrective action plan, state officials were confused about how many
positions still needed to be filled in order to keep SHPD's federal
certification.

The
National Park Service listed 10 positions that must be filled in a letter to
state officials last month.

But
Aiu told Civil Beat that it was four positions.

And
the private contractor who has been hired to help the state comply with the
federal requirements believes it's only one. Ray Soon, head of Solutions
Pacific, which was awarded a $186,000 contract last year to help the department
meet the federal requirements, wasn't sure of the exact number of vacancies,
but said that only one key position needed to be filled.

"They
are well on their way," he said of the department's progress in hiring
staff. "There is only one key vacancy left and that will get done in the
next couple of months."

Guy
Kaulukukui, deputy director of DLNR, says the Park Service never made it clear
what positions were needed. The Park Service says it did.

Civil
Beat tried to find job listings for the vacant positions that the National Park
Service says are needed. This includes six archaeologists, two technology
specialists, a librarian and a CLG specialist.

There
is an ad for two archeologists on the Hawaii Department of Human Resources
Development'sstatewide employment websitebut none of the other positions set out
by the Park Service are listed.

Other
job listings on SHPD websites were expired or inaccurate.

There
is a direct link to one position on SHPD'shome page, but clicking on it takes you to a Big
Island archeologist position that says resumes must be postmarked by 2005 and
addressed to Melanie Chin, the former head of the department who left in 2007.
The position is posted under a tab that says "New To This Web Site."

What
appears to be asecond
homepagefor SHPD
lists openings for a historic preservation GIS specialist and two burial site
specialists. The link to the GIS specialist position is expired. Pua told Civil
Beat that this position had been filled.

There
are also two burial specialist positions listed on the state's general
employment website.

Kaulukukui
conceded that it was "troubling" that a year and a half into the
corrective action plan, officials still hadn't clarified with the Park Service
which positions needed to be staffed.

"The
fact that we are working from an assumption about what needs to be met under
the (corrective action plan) is disconcerting," he said.

Melia
Lane-Kamahele, a National Park Service official, told Civil Beat that the 10
positions listed in last month's report must be filled in order to meet the
staffing needs in the corrective action plan.

Kaulukukui
said that hadn't been made clear until now.

"It's
our position that that hasn't been specified and those 10 positions in
particular never showed up anywhere until the April 19 letter (from the
National Park Service)," he said.

"To
me, it's alarming that we are getting the news that these positions need to be
filled now and in this way — from the media."

But
Lane-Kamahele said that this had always been clear.

"I
think I would say that we have always been very clear about the requirements
for grants and maintaining a professionally operating department that meets
mandated requirements," she said.

Kaulukukui
said he has set up a meeting this week in Washington D.C. with Stephanie
Toothman, a director at the National Park Service, to discuss the corrective
action plan, and in particular, the staffing situation.

Money
Pot Untouched

Last
July, at the start of this fiscal year, SHPD had approximately $625,000 to pay
for new staff. But by April, the department had failed to attract new hires and
decided to divert the funds to other needs, according to Aiu.

In
April, she redirected about $400,000 for the following:

·$175,000 for five new vehicles

·$14,000 for 10 iPads and Trimble GPS software

·$34,560 to digitize Kauai reports and documents

·$4,840 for interisland travel

·$165,361 for Solutions Pacific, the private consultant

About
one-third of the $625,000 will be lost if it's not allocated by June 30, the
end of the 2012 fiscal year. Unused money is redeposited into the state's
general fund.

Kaulukukui
defended the purchases, but also said it was unfortunate that SHPD had failed
to meet staffing levels.

“We
wouldn't have diverted the vacancy savings if there was a chance they would be
needed for salary,” he said by email. “Given that, the diverted uses are very
valid. Improving the safety of our staff in the field and enhancing the data
collecting and connectivity while out there. That being said, we're all
disappointed we were unable to recruit into those positions and are determined
not to be in the same position a year from now.”

Aiu
said that the $175,000 for new vehicles was important for ensuring employee
safety.

SHPD
staff needs to travel throughout the islands for site visits and Aiu said that
the vehicles the department has been using are more than eight years old.

“Maui
and Hilo don’t work,” she said. “The one in Kona, I’m afraid one day my staff
person will be driving somewhere and it will die on him.”

The
money covers four four-wheel-drive vehicles, estimated at about $35,000 each,
and a hybrid vehicle.

SHPD's
Revolving Door

SHPD's
dismal track record of recruiting and retaining staff is at the heart of why it
might lose its federal certification. The agency has been struggling for years
to deal with the problem.

Out
of 20 available positions, one-third are currently vacant, according to DLNR.
And between 2004 and 2010, a staggering 37 employees left SHPD, according to areportby the National Park Service.

A
survey included in the 2010 report found that office morale was “very bad.”
Reasons included a heavy workload, a chaotic workplace and constant staff
turn-over.

One
respondent commented that morale “was better recently, but it was so bad
before, it’s hard to tell.”

While
the department has struggled to retain workers, it's also had a hard time
attracting qualified staff. State officials have long said that it's difficult
to find applicants who have specialized knowledge of Native Hawaiian culture
and history. Salaries are also significantly lower than in the private sector,
said Aiu.

While
the $625,000 designated for hiring this year could have been used to increase
the salaries of open positions, Aiu said that this wasn't a good strategy
because the department might not be allocated sufficient sums from the
Legislature year after year to cover the costs.

However,
Kaulukukui said that this was something that SHPD should look at.

"We
have the flexibility to pay more," he said. "It frustrates me a
little bit that we don't. It's something that the division really needs to look
at."

But
he said he was hesitant to have top DLNR officials do that for SHPD.

"We
shouldn't dip our hands down into the operations of any division," he
said. "Division administrators need to have leeway to allocate
resources."

Solutions Pacific Bringing Solutions?

Last
year, DLNR hired Solutions Pacific, an outside contractor, to help the
department meet the requirements of the corrective action plan. Ray Soon, the
company's principal, who was a member of Gov.Neil Abercrombie's transition team, received a
one-year, competitively bid contract for $186,000.

An
appointee of President Bill Clinton, Soon served for nine years on the
President's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. He is a former director
of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and holds a master's degree in city
planning from Harvard University.

Last
week, the contract was modified to include an extra $165,000, which is being
taken out of this year's budget. All of the money will be used to hire about a
half-dozen temporary employees to process a backlog of more than 400 permits.

The
new employees, which include archeologists, will be hired for 12 weeks to do
the job that SHPD staff would normally do, but have fallen behind on. The hires
will not help fulfill the federal hiring requirements, but Kaulukukui said that
it could help to attract new employees in time to meet the September deadline.

"Solutions
Pacific can hire much faster than we can," he said. "The state
process is very cumbersome and slow. We're also counting on them to be able to
convince people to take jobs that we as an agency have not been able to do. For
years, we haven't had a track record of attracting qualified applicants."

Aiu
said that she felt the strategy was a good one and that by clearing the backlog
it could help make the office a more attractive place to work.

But
time is running out. The department has less than five months to hire the
full-time employees.

Aiu
said that it can take more than three months to fill a position.

The
status report conducted by the National Park Service said that SHPD had
improved in many areas, but not all. SHPD must meet all requirements in order
to keep its certification.

Soon
didn't know that Sept. 30 is the deadline for fulfilling the corrective action
plan. Still, he was optimistic that SHPD would meet the requirements and
characterized the Park Service's review last month was positive.

"The
National Park Service comes in half way and said, 'How are you doing? There are
some good things that are being done and some not,'" he said. "So NPS
pats them on the back and says you are doing good. However, you haven't
finished this and you haven't finished this. There are concerns that have to be
addressed in order to meet the CAP. But that is typical of any mid-term report.
I'm sure it's like getting grades in school."

Hawaii
will be the first state in the country to lose its certification if it fails to
meet the requirements in the corrective action plan, according to the National
Park Service. Federal officials are working to come up with a backup plan if
this happens.

DLNR provided the following document detailing the positions it
thought needed to be filled, and those that the National Park Service says need
to be filled. DLNR says that some of the jobs on the National Park Service's
April list have been filled. An official at the federal agency said that as of
last month, none of the 10 positions had been filled.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The Hawai‘i State Historic Preservation
Division is actively soliciting applications from interested and qualified
candidates for key positions in its division. Candidates can view the
postings below for more information on available positions and to determine if
qualification requirements are met.

For more information about SHPD,
visit: http://hawaii.gov/dlnr/hpd/. Continue to check here for additional postings. Don't miss this
opportunity to be part of preserving the places that make Hawai'i . . .
Hawai'i!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

WASHINGTON – In
recognition of the contributions to our nation's rich and diverse cultural
heritage, the National Park Service celebrates May as Asian American and
Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

“The
resources of the National Park Service provide a wealth of opportunity to
explore the contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to the
American story,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis.
“Scores of national parks and properties highlight the bitter hardships and
proud accomplishments of the Asian and Pacific experience in America.”

From the early
1800s to the 21st century, Asian and Pacific peoples have played a vital role
in the development of the United States and made lasting contributions in all
elements of American society. Among the national parks that highlight important
aspects of the Asian and Pacific experience in America are:

· Pu’uhonua
O Hónaunau National Historical Park(Hawaii) - Home to some of the most
significant traditional Hawaiian sites the park extends through three ahupua'a
(traditional Hawaiian units of land). It preserves over 400 years of
Hawaiian history, including the historic 1871 Trail and the remains of an
abandoned farming and fishing village known as Ki'ilae Village.

· Golden
Spike National Historic Site(Utah) - Among the stories
told that define the completion of the first Transcontinental Railroad here in
1869 were Chinese immigrants, who made up a majority of the work force that
laid the tracks.

· Manzanar
National Historic Site(California)
andMinidoka Internment National Historic Site(Idaho & Washington) – Shortly
after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States government ordered more
than 110,000 Japanese American men, women, and children to leave their homes
and detained them in remote, military-style camps. Manzanar War Relocation
Center and Minidoka Relocation Center were two of the ten camps where these
American citizens and resident Japanese aliens were interned.

· National
Mall and Memorial Parks-
Marking the 100th anniversary of their planting in 2012, the famous cherry
trees were a gift of friendship to the People of the United States from the
People of Japan in 1912. Each year, they signal the coming of spring with
an abundance of life and color in a sea of pale pink and white petals
surrounding the Thomas Jefferson Memorial along the Tidal Basin.

In addition to
national parks, the National Park Service also administers a number of programs
commemorating the role of Asian Pacific Americans in the diversity of our
nation. For links to theses resources, including more than 40 highlighted
properties from the National Register of Historic Places, photo streams, travel
itineraries, lesson plans, and much more, visithttp://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/feature/asia/.

The Chinatown
neighborhood in Manhattan was forged in a dynamic period in American history,
from the mid-19th to the early 20th century; a time when waves of immigrants
from all corners of the world came to New York seeking opportunity.

Read about the
young man Wong On who left his village near the city of Canton, China, to avoid
the Taiping Rebellion, searched for gold in America, founded a business,
created a Chinese community, and helped build the infrastructure of the west
coast.

About the National
Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for
America’s 394 national parks and work with communities across the nation to
help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational
opportunities. Learn more atwww.nps.gov.